June 14, 2004

The Beyster Institute Joins The UCSD Rady School Of Management

By Lindsay Orth


The Beyster Institute and University of California, San Diego announced today the integration of the Beyster Institute into the Rady School of Management at UCSD.

The incorporation of the Beyster Institute into the Rady School is designed to advance the Beyster Institute’s mission of promoting global entrepreneurship, employee ownership and economic development. It also enhances the Rady School’s ability through teaching and research to provide the strong leadership skills required by the nation’s entrepreneurial economy.

“The Beyster Institute is an exceptional organization that immediately provides the Rady School with global reach and credibility in enterprise innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Robert S. Sullivan, founding Dean of the Rady School. “This is an unparalleled opportunity that will help the school to pioneer and to redefine graduate business education.”

The purpose of the Beyster Institute is to understand, support and promote the roles of entrepreneurship and employee ownership in growing companies and in society. Combining entrepreneurship and employee ownership is fundamental to developing and sustaining companies defined by intellectual capital, creativity, innovation and service to the customer.

“This is the proverbial match made in heaven—linking the consulting, training and international projects of the Beyster Institute with the talent and resources of the Rady School and Dean Sullivan’s vision of a business school for the 21st Century based on technology, innovation and enterprise,” said Dr. Ray Smilor, executive director of the Beyster Institute.

While the Beyster Institute will continue to focus on employee ownership as part of the Rady School, the Institute’s mission can be expected to naturally expand and deepen to provide entrepreneurial scholarship, education and service. The institute will become the key center for entrepreneurial thought and activity at the Rady School.

The Beyster Institute at the Rady School will create the only such university-based center to integrate both employee ownership and entrepreneurship. This partnership also will give the Rady School a true point of differentiation in helping to create a business school of the 21st Century. In turn, the Beyster Institute will be enriched by access to world-class researchers and educators across the UCSD campus.

As part of this transition, it is anticipated that Beyster Institute staff will become UCSD employees. An advisory board for the Beyster Institute that includes both university and community leaders will be created and Dr. Ray Smilor will continue to serve as the Beyster Institute’s Executive Director.

The Rady School at the University of California at San Diego develops innovators into successful science and technology business leaders. Situated in a globally recognized hotbed of innovation, the business school is uniquely poised to offer access to both cutting-edge research and a fully engaged San Diego business community. The Rady School continues UC San Diego’s tradition of excellence, risk-taking, and breakthrough innovations, attracting the top business researchers and educators in the world. Rady presents an integrated approach to business and technology and emphasizes cross-boundary collaborations and programs with UC San Diego centers of excellence: science, engineering, medicine, economics and international relations. The charter class of executive MBA students will enroll in fall 2004, and the charter class of full-time students is slated for fall 2005.

Dr. J. Robert Beyster founded Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in 1969. SAIC, a Fortune 500 company, now ranks as the largest employee-owned research and engineering firm in the nation, with more than 43,000 employees and revenues of $6.7 billion. Beyster is also founder of the Beyster Institute and the Foundation for Enterprise Development, and funded the J. Robert Beyster Chair in Engineering and the Science Applications International Corporation Chair in Engineering at the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering. He is chair emeritus of the UC San Diego Foundation and is a member of the UCSD Chancellor’s Associates.

Media Contact: Lindsay Orth, 858-822-5309

Media Contact: Debra Sherman (Beyster Institute), (858) 826-1677